This illumination is among the best in the volume; the colours are vivid, and the gold enrichments managed with good effect; the moment represented is, doubtless, the first meeting of the Duke and the King, the former kneeling, (having removed his coronet), in token of homage. The two personages on the right are the Dukes of Burgundy and Berri, the King’s uncles. The introduction of the Pages of the Duke of Brittany in the foreground is managed with good effect; and the design of the apartment, with its tapestries, &c. is very interesting, as exhibiting a system of colouring, in which the ceiling is the darkest feature, and the floor the lightest: a principle just resuscitated with great effect by some of our leading architects. [Illustration: The retaking and surrender of the strong Castle of Ventadour.] PLATE IX. THE SURRENDER AND RE-TAKING OF THE STRONG CASTLE OF VENTADOUR[1]. This subject is interesting, as showing pretty accurately the arrangement of the interior works of a fortified castle of the fourteenth century, and the manner of taking possession of such a place by an armed force. The circumstances connected with the taking of this fortress by the troops of the Duke de Berri, are briefly as follows. The wars between the French and English, which devastated a large portion of France during part of the fourteenth century, were aggravated in their ruinous effects upon the people by the Free Companies, a sort of land privateers who, under pretext of belonging to one or other party, pillaged small towns, captured castles when insufficiently defended, and, in short, preyed recklessly upon the defenceless; being, in fact, bands of robbers. Geoffrey Tête-noire, one of these Free Companions, by the treachery of a servant, gained possession of the castle of Ventadour, in Auvergne, belonging to the Count de Montpensier, which, from its strong position among the mountains, was deemed at that time impregnable by force; indeed, it appears that it was so, for Geoffrey Tête-noire held it till his death, defeating every attempt to gain it by force, and refusing every offer to buy it with money; he considered it as his own inheritance, levying contributions on all the surrounding country, which enabled him to live in great state and plenty. He commenced his passports and treaties of composition with “Geoffrey Tête-noire, duke of Ventadour, count of Limousin, sovereign lord and commander of all the captains in Auvergne, Rouergue, and Limousin.”